Again, Bohemia, like Ireland, was the home of two rival populations.
The one was the native Czech, the other was the intruding German;
and the two had not yet learned to love each other. From all sides
except one these German invaders had come. If the reader will
consult a map of Europe he will see that, except on the south-east
frontier, where the sister country, Moravia, lies, Bohemia is
surrounded by German-speaking States. On the north-east is Silesia,
on the north-west Saxony, on the west Bavaria and the Upper
Palatinate, and thus Bohemia was flooded with Germans from three
sides at once. For years these Germans had been increasing in
power, and the whole early history of Bohemia is one dreary
succession of bloody wars against German Emperors and Kings.
Sometimes the land had been ravaged by German soldiers, sometimes a
German King had sat on the Bohemian throne. But now the German
settlers in Bohemia had become more powerful than ever. They had
settled in large numbers in the city of Prague, and had there
obtained special privileges for themselves. They had introduced
hundreds of German clergymen, who preached in the German language.
They had married their daughters into noble Bohemian families.
They had tried to make German the language of the court, had spoken
with contempt of the Bohemian language, and had said that it was
only fit for slaves. They had introduced German laws into many a
town, and German customs into family life; and, worse than all, they
had overwhelming power in that pride of the country, the University
of Prague. For these Germans the hatred of the people was intense.
"It is better," said one of their popular writers, "for the land to
be a desert than to be held by Germans; it is better to marry a
Bohemian peasant girl than to marry a German queen." And Judas
Iscariot himself, said a popular poet, was in all probability a
German.